Interchange
by Avelister
Summary: Her life wasn't supposed to end up this way. At least, that's what she told herself. When Hiccup goes missing abruptly, Astrid must do everything in her power to save him, even if it means risking her own life. Rated M for language and eventual smut.


**Ok! So! I'm back! After a nice long break from the illusive world of writing, I have returned with a brand new story that I am PLANNING TO ACTUALLY FINISH. I have a plot, well, something leaning towards what a plot should be, all planned out in my head. Let's just hope it stays there!**

 **Anyways guys! Here is Interchange full of a crap load of Angst and of course, eventual smut! Because who doesn't love smut? And FEELS everyone LOVES the feels! Might I say! If feels is what you're looking for, then by golly have you come to the right place!**

 **So please, Enjoy!**

 **TUMBLR: Avelister**

 **You know…just in case any of you wanted any drabbles writen at all. I'm open for requests!**

Interchange;

Summary: He was supposed to be alive and she was supposed to be dead

Her life wasn't supposed to end up this way. At least, that's what she told herself. Only a mere two months had passed since Stoick's death, and their lives had been violently turned upside down.

Hiccup had become somewhat accustom to his new lifestyle as chief. The only way he was able to somewhat prevent the village from burning down was by having Gobber there by his side, feeding obliging information to the villages as they frantically ran about, fixing what they could while making side conversations with each other. Working and communication always proved to be an arduous task when it came to Spitelout. Gobber would just scowl and turn towards Hiccup, telling him as un-sarcastically as possible, "eh, he's just full'a yack's shit. Don' pay 'Im too much mind, lad."

And then of course, there was Astrid. Always checking up on him to make sure he was manageably running on the 3 hours of sleep he barely stole each night. Their moments together were reduced down to once or twice a week if they were lucky, stealing quick kisses when they passed in the village. On the highly rare occasion when he would come home early, and find her sitting by the fire sipping on tea, It would only take several minutes before he had her pinned against the wall, frantically kissing her; hands running up and down her, memorizing her every curve and freckle.

Everything seemed to be going well for once.

But all good things need to come to an end.

No one knew exactly what happened, but Astrid had been frantic since that morning.

She had awoken to the sun pouring through the cracked window by her bedside. It was a beautiful morning; few clouds scattered across the sky and the sun warmed to earth to that perfect spring temperature.

She dressed herself in her usual attire, and pulled her hair to the side to begin braiding it into its usual do.

She took in a deep breath, and let it out with a relaxed sigh.

Everything was looking like it was finally reaching somewhat of a normal peek in the time before the incident with Drago, and it was nice to see everything finally looking and feeling normal. Hiccup's stress levels were going down, and he had begun adjusting to his new sleeping schedule and copious work load with rebuilding the village.

She finished her morning routine, coming downstairs and grabbing one of her mother's frequently made rolls that sat in the basket on the wooden tale centered in the room.

"I'm going out! I'll be back by sundown!" She shouted into the house from her place in the entryway. Even though she was sure her parents were already out working in the village, sometimes she found her parents lingering around, so she yelled the reiterated sentence anyways.

She exited the house, closing the door not-so quietly behind her as she strode down the steps and headed towards her usual morning destination.

It wasn't unusual for the villages to see the blond walking to the chiefs house each morning. In fact, it had almost become so accustomed to them, they hardly paid it any mind, except for the few that would give her pleasurable morning greetings as she strode along the dirt pathway to the house on the top of the hill, on-looking the village.

She didn't knock on the door anymore; Valka insisted that she was already considered family as much, and greeted her with open arms when she came each morning.

Valka sat at the small wooden table centered in the large room, her petite hand around a small cup that sat silently and idly on the table, but not since moved. Her eyes were fixed on the floor in front of her, glossy and shining with unshed tears. She was thinking of the late chief, Astrid knew.

"Hello," Astrid greeted kindly. Valkas eyes frantically found the source of the voice, and relaxed when she saw who it belonged to.

"Hello, dear. How are you?" She greeted back, bringing a tired hand up to rub away the sign of another sleepless night, and the tears she didn't even realize where there.

"Just fine, you?" Of course she already knew the answer that was coming. It wasn't rare to find her like this, day or night.

"I've been better. Just haven' got much sleep lately, that's all." The older woman offered a weak smile before picking up the cup in front of her and talking a sip of what Astrid assumed was water.

Astrid gave a small sympathetic smile back.

She couldn't even fathom what Valka was going through. Just after getting her husband back, He was soon dead. It still made her cringe thinking of the scene before her when Hiccup sat over his father's body, weeping over his the late chiefs body, cursing the gods to bring him back.

 _Thank the gods it wasn't him._ She would find herself thinking.

She squeezed her eyes shut at the all too vivid image that haunted her of Hiccup lying there in the snow, motionless and pale.

The nightmares that had plagued her for weeks always found their way to her mind at times, and it made her want to check in his room countless times during the night, just to make sure he was alive. That he was still here, alive and well, breathing and colorful. Most importantly, safe.

"Is he still up in his room?" She asked, nodding her head towards the stairs.

"I haven' seen him come down at all."

Somewhere in her, there was a flicker of worry, soon subsided by her will to force the nightmares away.

"Odd. Well, I'll go see what's keeping him." She replied, offering one last smile to her before turning towards the stairs.

Upon entering the room, there was one thing she realized. Neither Hiccup nor toothless were there. _Maybe he just needed some fresh air this morning._ She thought to herself. _But, he always comes to wake me if he's up before I am._ That's when a twinge of worry set in. And the panic didn't set in until she walked around to the other side of the bed, where Hiccup usually was. What she saw made her whole body numb, and the reality of her nightmares becoming all too real.

 _Blood_.

A copious amount of it too, pooled on the thick wooden floor.

All of the air was stolen from her lungs at once as her eyes bore into the dark, sticky pool, fear flooding through her whole being as well as an unforeseen amount of confusion racking through her brain as she stumbled backwards, her back hitting the wall behind her almost hard enough to hurt. Her heart raced as she tried to somewhat gather her thoughts, before she realized that she was running for the door.

Her brain was fuzzy, and she practically fell down the steps, mumbling incoherent words to herself under her breath as she began to seek out the one person she knew who could help.

"Va-valka-" Astrid started as she reached the bottom of the stairs, breath beginning to become labored from her hustled and worried confusion.

The older woman snapped out of her state of obvious re-occurring deep thought immediately at the sound of Astrid distressed voice. "Astrid? What's wrong, dear?" Valka asked, sliding back in her chair and standing, cautiously starting to walk towards the frantic girl.

"Bl-blood." Was all she was able to stutter as she gasped for another strained breath.

Valka's eyes widened at the word, and her whole being went rigid. Immediately she broke into a run towards the stairs, running up the creaky wooden steps as fast as her energy-drained body would allow, Astrid following close behind.

At entering the room and stumbling towards Hiccup's side of the bed, Valka stopped with a sudden gasp, not able to comprehend what she was seeing. Astrid had fallen to a sitting position against the wall. She held her knees tightly to her chest, and even from where Valka stood, she could tell the girls chest was quivering with each intake of a shaky breath, and her eyes trained on the blood that covered the floor, bloodshot from being strained open.

Valka was only able to take away one thing from the present situation. Something had happened to Hiccup, something had happened to her boy.

Astrid's mind couldn't even function properly. Her brain still felt fuzzy, her eyes wouldn't focus on one thing, along with feeling indescribably nauseated. Nothing at this point made any sort of sense to her, and her brain worked frantically to work around the corners of the information she was trying so desperately to merely comprehend.

It had been such a normal night. Nothing had gone wrong. He seemed happy; nothing seemed to be on his mind at all that night. He had talked like it was just another regular night.

And now this.

She couldn't wrap her mind around it. Hiccup was missing, possibly dead.

 _Oh gods_

A lump caught in her throat and suddenly she felt like she couldn't even breath. What if Hiccup _was_ dead? Why else would there be so much blood? Gods, she didn't even want to think about it, but that didn't stop the invidious visions crawling through her brain, envisions of her nightmares suddenly becoming so real and so true.

Astrid had to bring her hand up to her mouth to stifle the choked cry that escaped from her lips. This couldn't be happening. Of course not. This was all just another one of her nightmares, and soon she would wake up, and she would go over to his house like she supposedly already did just this morning, and he would be sitting at his desk like she always found him in the mornings when he wasn't outside attending to his duties.

Accept lying to herself never helped.

She curled into herself from where she sat on the floor, eyes still on the blood, not even realizing that Valka had placed a hand on her quaking shoulder.

"It's going to be-"

"No." Astrid said firmly, her eyes now on the older woman's stunned glare. Astrid shrugged off Valka's reassuring hand and laid her eyes on the floor. Her chest felt contracted while she huffed out each labored breath.

"Don't you dare tell me that it's all going to be ok. Nothing about this is ok. Something happened to him, and I'm terrified, and lying to me will only make it worse."

Astrid's glossy ocean blue eyes stared straight into Valka's, the older woman at a loss of words.

"Nothing about this is ok." She repeated at a whisper of sorts, voice quivering as she tried to force them out through her tightening throat. Her hands shook wildly as she brought them tighter around herself.

Her cheeks were warm with newly shed tears. How could this happen? Out of everything bad that could have taken place, it was this. Greif of the late chief had somewhat diminished in the everyday talk that was exchanged by villagers, but what would happen when news spread that Hiccup was gone too? Free from the safe grasp of home and thrown out into the cruel world of Hel knows that.

Astrid let out a sob before willing herself to speak.

"This is all my fault," she whispered, her voice still unable to come above the susurrate level it had been. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Valka shaking her head, eyes searching her face.

"Don't talk like that dear; you didn't see this coming at the slightest. No one did. You can't pin something like this on yourself-"

"But I can! Last night when he came home, he told me to go home! I fought him on it but he eventually convinced me so I did! If I would have just stayed like I wanted to, maybe he would still be here!" She finished with a sniff, wiping away the newly shed tears that had found their way down her face.

It took her several seconds, but soon something in her brain clicked, and it caused even more fear to surge though her.

"It's Alvin." She said, letting out a heavy breath she didn't realize she was holding in.

"Astrid, I'm sure that that's not-"

"No, Valka you don't understand. About 5 months ago I received a letter, more like a death threat from him, telling me to hand over the book of dragons and myself, or 'bad things would happen.'"

"Then why didn't-"

"I just ignored it! Hiccup would have flipped out and gone himself. But then 3 months past and everything with Drago happened and I thought that maybe that was it! That Alvin was in alliance with Drago and that was the threat he was talking about!"

"What did you do with the-"

"I burned it! I just-"She paused before standing up, legs shaky to the point where she felt they would give out at any moment. She walked around the other side of the bed, using her hand to support herself as she kneeled down to look under the bed where she knew the book would be.

She pulled the single sheet up, eyes searching the rank darkness, but she was met with nothing but dust.

"It's gone. The book is gone." She sat back on her heels, raking her fingers through her hair as she tried to steady her breath.

Astrid blinked away the blurriness of tears in her eyes, staring back at Valka who looked just as stunned as she did.

She had had to do something about this, she knew. This was all her fault. She shouldn't have been so stupid as to ignore the letter. She should have told him about it and he would have handled it.

If it weren't for her Hiccup would still be here.

He would still be alive.

 _No_. She couldn't let herself think that way. She couldn't let those nightmares become a reality.

"Valka he's gone because of me." She mumbled. She brought her arms protectively back around herself, squeezing tightly, as if it would somehow relieve the sting in her heart that wouldn't go away.

"Oh, Astrid." The older woman slowly approached her, kneeling down to her level and bringing her arms around her to engulf her in a warmth that wasn't there that she so desperately needed, even if it wasn't from the person she wanted.

Astrid sobbed.

"I killed him Valka," She sobbed into her shoulder, gripping desperately onto her thick cloak.

"Astrid," she started, putting calm, gentle hands on the young girls shoulders and pushing lightly back on them so she could look her in the eyes. "Listen to me. You did _not_ kill Hiccup, do you understand? No one had any idea that this would happen, much less when. You have done nothing wrong in any sort of way. You didn't know that Alvin was coming, and there was no way to prevent it-"

"But there was! If I would have just gone when I got the letter, it would be me instead of him!"

"Astrid you know Hiccup wouldn't have let you go. He would have gone himself or dealt with it some other way."

"And look where that landed us! He's gone, most likely _dead_ because of me!"

"Astrid, stop talking like that," Valka pressed, firming her grip on Astrid's shoulders. "If this could have been avoided, trust me, we would have done everything we could to prevent it. Pinning all of this on yourself isn't being fair to you when you have done nothing wrong at all."

Astrid averted her eyes from Valka's, sniffing and staring towards the floor, trying to collect her thoughts.

"This doesn't feel real. I don't want it to be real." Astrid stated quietly, sniffing again and bringing her hand up to her face and wiping away the tears that didn't seem to stop flowing.

It was true, though. None of what was happening felt the slightest bit real. Maybe it was because of her constant labored breathing that was making her feel light headed, because the worry she felt pulling at her chest was just too much.

Maybe it was that fact that it was so real that it just didn't feel real.

"Astrid, look at me dear." Valka placed an idle finger under her chin, raising it ever so slightly so Astrid's eyes could meet hers. "We will find him, I can promise you that. We will alert the village of what happened as soon as we can, and begin searching immediately. And I can promise you that we won't stop looking until we have found the answers we need, or better yet find Hiccup."

The older woman's stare was soft but firm, confirming to Astrid that she was in fact not alone by any means in this. That she had people to stand by her and help her seek out the one person they all needed, but the one person she needed the most.

"I can fly out in a few hours to some neighboring archipelagoes and ask around if they have seen anything strange at all, ships or dragons; If you don't mind playing the part of acting chief while I'm gone." Astrid said, standing from her place at the side of the bed, hand still placed on the bed as support. Her voice was still groggy, like someone who had been crying, and she wished that she could just simply clear her throat so it would go away.

"I wouldn't mind the slightest, dear. Just…take a small group, or at least some form of help along with you. Gods know what would happen if the both of you were missing." She shook her head, a small smile playing at her lips.

"Don't worry; I was already planning on taking a few trusted people with me anyways." She sniffed again, trying to subside the urge to burst into an outrage of tears again.

"Go get Him." Valka stated quietly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Astrid smiled, nodding once before turning towards her door, not before grabbing her axe from where it sat against her wall. She made sure to graze her thumb over where Hiccup had carved her name into the handle.


End file.
